Interesting question
In a blog post on our community site, the question was asked, “what we did with snakes that were sub par or not wanted by anyone”. People have asked if we put those animals down being that it might be a good business decision. Not that it was a leading question, but it made me want to explain my position on “all” of my animals. First off, when you work with large numbers of animals people sometimes assume that you lose the care for each individual. In some cases I am sure that’s true, but in my case it can not be further from the truth. I’m not going to tell you that we offer more care then a person that has a pet snake that they are in love with. Of course we don’t have the time to take each snake out and play with them for an hour a day, or maybe even catch a minor issue as quick as someone with a very small collection, but that still does not mean that we don’t try to give each animal the best life we can.
So lets get down to it, what do I do when we produce a kinked snake, or a sub par animal, or even a snake that nobody in the market wants? We’ll take them one at a time. Kink snakes do happen and a lot of them live full and happy lives, as a matter a fact the first Ball Python I ever owned had a sibling that was kinked and it lived over 20 years. Most of the time I will give them away to someone that just wants a pet and they don’t care about the defect. Of course when I have an animal born with severe kinks or is sub par and can not thrive without major issues, it can be a hard decision, but we try to do what’s right for the animal. In some cased putting them down is the most humane thing to do, but it never comes down to what the best financial decision is, but only what is best for each individual snake. When it comes to animals that people just are not interested in, which I have to say is kind of rare. It can happen, but it seems that you can always find a home for any good reptile as long as the price is what the person is willing to pay. When we do have that rare animal that we can not find a home for, they usually spend the rest of their days here at BHB. I have not and will not ever put a snake down so I can avoid the cost of care for it. Does it happen in our hobby, I am sure it does, but never here! Trust me, we have a lot of “pet” snakes!
I can not stress enough that the reason I keep and breed snakes is for the love of the animal. Not for the money, not for the fame, not for the power trip. I get up each morning looking forward to working with my collection. The minute that I make a financial decision that effects a snakes life will be the day I get out of the business. That doesn’t mean that I have not made mistakes, but it means I will always put an animals well being in front of my bottom line.
In the end it was a great question, one that a lot of people probably wanted to know the answer to, but might have been afraid to ask. There you have it, my answer… Hope you guys understand where I stand on the issue now! Have a great holiday weekend!
